Chef Asha Gomez is tired of being pigeonholed

Asha Gomez has seen this happen time and again.

The cookbook author and chef has lived in the United States for 35 years, but when Gomez is asked to contribute a recipe to a food publication such as Bon Appétit or Food & Wine, it’s almost always for an Indian dish. “We’re going to ask Nigella Lawson for a Kerala chicken curry or vegetable curry, but you won’t ask me for a recipe that comes out of Europe?” she said. “It’s a type of microaggression against me as a chef. Why would you think I’m not capable of that?”